Red Dwarf Series VII (review)

Between 6 and 7, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor had a falling-out and Red Dwarf seemed to be gone forever. However, spurred on by the 'To Be Continued' line at the end of Series 6, Doug Naylor decided to go for a 7th series in 1996. Instead of him alone writing the scripts, however, guest writers featured heavily in this series. However, many had to be turned down.

The seventh series was longer than the others, going from 6 episodes to 8. Also, the filming style alters - quite noticeably - and the laugh track was not added until after post-production. Three episodes had a large amount of deleted scenes, and was presented in a special 'Xtended' version, also found on the recently-released DVD.

Director Ed Bye, who had left after Series 4, was enticed back nicely. Turns out he never wanted to leave - the only reason he did was because of conflicting schedules. Chris Barrie was a little more difficult. The Brittas Empire, which he stars in, was becoming more popular. In the end, Rimmer returned for four episodes, two of them flashbacks.

"Tikka To Ride" explained away how the Dwarfers came to be alive again, and also presents a big problem for Lister - there is no curry on board, nor any lager. The crew travel back in time, using a familiar time drive, but end up pushing Lee Harvey Oswald out of a window.

"Duct Soup" was the low-budget episode for the series. When the generators in Starbug fail, the crew need to get to the engine room through the service ducts. It's a nice change for Lister and Kristine, as Lister can't sleep through the 94-degree heat and Kochanski can't sleep because the pipes are making sounds - they 'squilookle' when they should 'nureek'.

Lister is feeling "Blue" and missing Rimmer, until Kryten takes the crew on an AR rollercoaster filled with Rimmer propaganda. Check out the song that the munchkin Rimmers are singing - the words were actually done by Howard Goodall, musical director for Red Dwarf.

In "Beyond A Joke", which was written by Kryten actor Robert Llewellyn, Lister, the Cat and Kristine pass up Lobster a la Kryten for a night in the AR suite playing 'Pride and Prejudice'. Unfortunately, Kryten doesn't like that, so he makes it clear by rolling through Jane Austen World with a tank.

"Epideme" is a virus that spreads from one human to another, killing them within 48 hours, and transmitting itself by taking control of the dead bodies. Lister is infected, and the crew think of ways to kill it without killing him. Not exactly the stuff you see in thriller movies, but it works.

Lister's arm was cut off, and in "Nanarchy" the crew try and think of ways to replace it... even to the extent of going through Lister's dirty sock basket, looking for nanobots. When they do find them, they also find an old friend, and an old ship.

Another episode that was only cut for budgetary reasons was "Identity Within", written by John McKay. The crew would have met more of those pesky GELFs, and the Cat would have finally fulfilled his dream. It was even rewritten to replace Rimmer with Kristine... but it was left alone for purely monetary reasons. Shame. On the DVD, however, 45 minutes are totally devoted to Chris Barrie reading out the script, as he had done for the audio books of the Red Dwarf series, and storyboards shown on-screen.